“Call the police” – Jagdeo challenges Benn on land documents

Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo is challenging Commissioner of the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission (GL&SC) Trevor Benn to bring in the Police over recent revelations of documents that show massive giveaways of prime lands across the country.
Last week, Jagdeo made several disclosures at his weekly press conference by producing several maps to show allocations of prime lands to persons with connections to the Government.
The following day, however, Benn indicated that he will be calling in the Police to probe how those documents got into the hands of the Opposition Leader.
Jagdeo, picking up on the threat, told the media on Thursday that he welcomed the investigation but warned that the tables will turn.
“If the Police have to investigate anything, they should be investigating Trevor Benn and how many files he has taken of individuals personally, and the staff knows (about it). I will get some of the staff to go to Court to speak about it because they know what’s going on. They’re upset and many of them are resigning. I’m daring him to do this,” the Opposition Leader stated.
According to Jagdeo, Benn never sought to dispute the land giveaways but seemed to be more concerned about how the documents were released.
“So effectively, he’s saying that those maps are public property, you can walk in and buy them from Lands and Surveys but Jagdeo got them so they’re stolen. That’s the big concern of his, not whether the maps are fake…where did they refute us,” the Opposition Leader questioned.
Furthermore, Jagdeo went on to dismiss claims by the GL&SC Head that he is in possession of thousands of acres of leased land. He pointed out that it is ridiculous that Benn would make such a claim, noting that since the CEO has access to all the information, then he should produce the evidence of this.
“I would like Benn to do what I did and released all the maps of the thousands of acres I own. Everything that I own, it gets declared to the Integrity Commission and I’ve done so from 2000 until I left office and then from recently again… If this Government finds one bit of anything that is not declared there, they can charge me and I go to jail for a year… So let Benn, the onus is on him since he made the charge, he should do that too; it’s at his disposal,” Jagdeo contended.
Responding to comments made following his revelations last week that it was a racist attack, the Opposition Leader explained that the is not about race but cronyism. He noted that President David Granger is constantly given a free pass in every corruption matter that his administration is involved and this recent issue is a clear indication of that.
Jagdeo pointed out that four top officials within the Ministry of the Presidency, which falls under the preview of the Head of State, are beneficiaries of large-scale tracts of prime properties and as such, the President must answer to this.
According to the Opposition Leader, the racism issue was only raised in a failed attempt to cover up this large-scale corruption. In fact, he noted that over the years, the PPP has consistently been outspoken against acts of corruption by many “cronies” of the coalition Government who are of Indian descent but there were never any such racism accusations raised.
“So how come it was not about race at that time when we pointed out there were big cronies, of different races, who were benefiting from this Government… But suddenly because we mentioned four persons who are working close to the office of the President, and they are beneficiaries of land and because they are Afro-Guyanese, we become racist.
“But this is not about race, this is about cronyism. Regardless of your race, there are people connected… I mentioned those connected to Granger’s office because there’s a pattern of behaviour… It’s important that we deal with the illegality whether it’s happening under the PPP or APNU…. That’s why we said we don’t have any problems with the investigation,” the Opposition Leader noted.
Meanwhile, when asked about the lands that were leased by the PPP administration, the Opposition Leader admitted that indeed persons sympathetic to the PPP administration got lands but he noted so did persons from the then PNC-led opposition as well. He explained that apart from the fact that there was not a No-Confidence Motion lingering over the former regime, his party, during its tenure, managed to develop over 100,000 new house lots from scratch to distribute. The coalition Government, he noted on the other hand, has not developed a single land.
Furthermore, Jagdeo outlined too that while lands were given out by the PPP, never in the 23 years in office were any prime lands, such as proposed location for the deep-water harbour projects, handed out.
“You check if we’ve given out to political people, these prime locations for deep water harbours. We never give the river to any PPP person, the whole river you give out; up to the middle of the Demerara River. So any time your boat drifts past the middle of the river to the western bank, you’re in private property… This is obscene, you take the prime location just as you’re in a situation where you’re about to lose power and then you hand it out to people who’re connected directly to the politicians,” he asserted.

At last week’s press conference, however, the GL&SC Head failed to address the giveaway of prime lands at strategic locations where there lies possibility to develop shore base facilities. Jagdeo had disclosed that some 50 acres along the western foreshore of the Demerara River, as well as 40 acres in the river itself— also toward the western side— were given away.
Nevertheless, the Opposition Leader went on to disclose that he was told that a lot of these persons who collected these large tracts of lands are just front persons and that the assets are being stashed for after elections for politicians in the coalition. Additionally, he revealed that since these disclosures last week, several businessmen have contacted persons close to him to get him to drop the issue. But Jagdeo is advising those persons to refrain from doing so.